Alabama

AEA Pledges Legal Action Over Vouchers

“AEA will never retreat in our battle to overcome this law, which hurts every public school in the state just to pay for some to go to private schoo

Governor Robert Bentley wasted little time last Thursday to sign the controversial private school voucher bill after the Alabama Supreme Court eliminated a legal roadblock filed by AEA in Montgomery Circuit Court.

AEA will waste very little time filing necessary legal motions in state and federal court to overturn the most extreme and most lucrative payout to private schools in the United States. More of Alabama’s public school money can be diverted to private schools in this new law than any similar private school laws in the other 15 states that have voucher laws.

“AEA will never retreat in our battle to overcome this law, which hurts every public school in the state just to pay for some to go to private school,” said AEA’s Executive Secretary Dr. Henry Mabry. “The language in the law, the mistakes in the law, and the outrageous backroom tactics used to pass it provide many ways to attack this outrageous affront to the people of our state, our students, and those who sacrifice so much to teach and work in our public schools.”

“Since 2008, we have 12,000 less teachers and education employees in our schools, little money to buy up-to-date books, less pay and benefits for employees, pre-K for only a fraction of Alabama kids, inadequate funding for the math and science initiative, and no money for securing our schools, yet the private school voucher act permanently prevents adequate money to invest in our public schools,” Mabry said. “This law mocks the dedication, caring, and hard work of educators across this state who have steadily improved schools over the past 10-years.”